Marking the beginning of the season of mangoes almost a month in advance, Talala agriculture produce marketing committee (APMC) in Junagadh district, the biggest market of Kesar mangoes in the state, would start auction of the juicy fruit from Tuesday onwards.

"This year, the crop is early and ripe mangoes have already started coming in the market. Hence, we have decided to start open auction of mangoes from Tuesday onwards,'' Hasu Jarsaniya, secretary of Talala APMC, told The Indian Express over the phone on Monday.

"Last year, the season had started on May 10. So, we can say that it is early by almost a month this time round," Jarsaniya added.

Generally, the season of Kesar mangoes is considered from May 15 to June 15 every year, but this time it is early as the mangoes have ripened early, say traders and farmers. "Rains were less last monsoon and hence flowering took place early this year. This has re…

ELECTIONS don’t come much closer. After counting more than 99% of the votes Venezuela’s election authority announced late on Sunday night that the government’s presidential candidate, Nicolás Maduro, had beaten his rival, Henrique Capriles of the Democratic Unity coalition, by just 1.59%. Of almost 14.8m votes cast, fewer than 235,000 separated the two candidates.

Mr Capriles and his campaign team have announced their refusal to accept the electronic vote-tally unless the electoral authority agrees to open all the ballot boxes and count the paper ballots. Their position is supported by the only opposition-leaning member of the electoral authority’s five-person board, Vicente Díaz. According to Mr Capriles, the opposition logged more than 3,200 irregularities—enough, he said, to render Mr Maduro’s victory margin moot.

In a tough speech, he told Mr Maduro: “You’re the one who was defeated today…

CARACAS, Venezuela —Calling himself the “Son of Chavez,” Nicolas Maduro, the interim president, won a slim victory after a brief but nasty presidential campaign in which he had pledged to complete the socialist transformation of this oil-rich nation that began under the man he served loyally for 20 years, President Hugo Chavez.

With nearly all the votes counted, electoral authorities said late in the evening that Maduro had taken 50.6 percent of the vote to just under 50 percent for Henrique Capriles, a youthful challenger who had only days to mount a campaign against a powerful and well-worn electoral machine.